An additional £270 million for new technology such as robotics, batteries, and self-driving cars was also announced in the Spring Budget. The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will aim to “kick-start the development of disruptive technologies” that can benefit the UK economy, the treasury said. This investment was teased earlier this year when the government released as part of the proposed Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill.An initial investment of £270 million in 2017-18 will kickstart the development of disruptive technologies that have the potential to transform the UK economy. The first wave of challenges funded from the ISCF will include the design and manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles, tackling air pollution, developing AI and robotics systems for extreme and hazardous environments, and accelerating patient access to new drugs and treatments. The government’s 5G Strategy sets out steps for the UK to become a world leader in the next wave of mobile technology and services. This includes a new National 5G Innovation Network to trial 5G applications. The first phase will invest up to £16 million in a 5G facility to work with the government's new 5G centre of 5G expertise. The government will also work on commercial options for improving coverage on roads and rail, and work with Ofcom to ensure the UK is fit for 5G. F Starting this year, the government will invest £200 million to fund a programme of local projects to boost the roll-out of full-fibre broadband as well as offer full-fibre broadband connection vouchers for businesses. Elswhere, the government and local authorities will connect public sector buildings, such as schools and hospitals to bring full-fibre closer to more homes and businesses. Public sector assets, such as existing ducts, will be opened to allow fibre to be laid more cheaply, too. Elsewhere, chancellor Phillip Hammond said the government would provide £200 million to fund a programme of local projects to speed-up the introduction of full-fibre broadband networks in the UK, which have been plagued by delays and overspending for years.

This new initiative will look to create “enough broadband demand” in local areas to reduce the financial risk of building new fibre networks. Public sector assets, such as existing ducts, will be opened up to allow fibre to be laid more quickly. The £200 million investment is in addition to a £400 million “full fibre” commitment made in the Autumn Statement as part of the government’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund. That investment will be matched by the private sector to improve fibre roll-out over the next four years.The government’s continued attempts to bring the UK’s internet infrastructure up to standard comes after regulator Ofcom ruled Openreach, the body responsible for the physical pipes and cables on which UK communications networks rely, should be run as a “legally” separate company from BT. The ruling, made in July 2016, has been opposed by BT.Earlier this month, the government announced its long-delayed Digital Strategy, which outlined how firms including Google, Barclays and BT will help train millions of people and plug the digital skills gap.But while money is being put into some technology sectors, others have suffered. Schools in England and Wales with solar panels installed are set to face a £1.8 million bill due to a change in business tax rates.According to a Freedom of Information request, 821 schools with solar will collectively have to pay an extra £800,000 a year. The change, which comes into force in April, could cost all schools with solar panels across England and Wales a total of £1.8m. Private schools with solar panels will remain exempt from the 800 per cent tax hike, leaving state schools to foot the bill.

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The Pixel C is the first tablet made and designed solely by Google for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, its latest mobile OS, and outwardly it has a purity that demonstrates the company's singular vision. It's stylishly made and looks professional with sleek lines and construction as solid as any laptop.With a display of just 10.2 inches it's a small machine, looking very much like an all-allumniium netbook (remember those?) when attached to its keyboard in the closed position. It also looks like a Chromebook, complete with the multicoloured lights on the front of the case, but the overall effect is of quality and durability. The Pixel C is a little heavy at 517g for the tablet alone (the iPad Pro is only 723g), and with the keyboard attached (which it more or less has to be, see below) it's a hefty 916g. It's also thicker than an iPad Mini at 7mm, though similar to the iPad Pro (6.9mm). The point? It's not the smallest or lightest device of its type in the world, but it's small enough and light enough to be genuinely portable.

In terms of raw specs, the Pixel C impresses with a Nvidia Tegra X1 64-bit processor and Maxwell GPU, which is more than enough to handle the very best games in the Play store. With 3GB of RAM, a decent-enough camera on the front and back (2 and 8 megapixels respectively), stereo speakers and the added convenience of USB Type-C charging for its 10-hour battery. The Pixel C display is also good, with a resolution of 2560 by 1800 pixels -- that's 308 pixels-per-inch, more than the iPad Pro. With an excellent contrast ratio everything looks crisp and clear with rich colours and deep blacks.The stand-out hardware feature is undoubtedly the keyboard. If you can get over the unusual way in which the Pixel C connects to the separate keyboard hardware -- you slide in horizontally, screen-up, then wait for it to click into place and lift up the screen which is now held in place by a remarkably strong magnet and hinge -- you'll start to enjoy the precision and clarity of the keys. Without a trackpad, you lack some of to day-to-day usability of a laptop (or a Microsoft Surface) but it blows Apple's iPad Pro keyboard away, ending up closer to a third-party iPad Mini keyboard like the Brydge (though it's not backlit). The Pixel C also knows when you're using it and when you're not -- there are no mystifying pop-ups of the on-screen keyboard when it's in laptop mode -- and charges the keyboard from your tablet without a cable.

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Taken together this adds up to an impressive piece of hardware. The trouble is what you do with the thing once you've stopped admiring it: though the Pixel C is decent as a media device and maybe even a games machine, it's an Android laptop in all but name and that presents serious issues.Google's own suite of web-focused apps is pretty good these days (the new 'research in Docs' integration with Google search is a nice addition) and there are certain key suites like Office available for the platform. But Android still lacks the few custom-built, screen-specific apps that really make such devices work (Paper by 53 for iPad, for example). And that it also lacks the adaptability of Windows.Most modern web users spend 90 percent of their time in Chrome anyway, but it's hard to make a compelling case for Android as a laptop operating system. As a Chromebook with more flexibility and app options, it's a good choice.The other issue is cost. The Pixel C and keyboard will run you £399 for the 32GB version and £479 for the 64GB, plus another £119 for the keyboard. That's competing with iPads and even the lowest-specced Surface 3, and doesn't include active pen/pencil/stylus support which -- depending on your use case -- really make both of those other products stand out.The Pixel C feels as much like a curiosity as it does a solution, and given the lack of truly compelling software it's hard not to see it as something that a few people will love, but the vast majority will ultimately decide. In a market where an iPad Mini 2 can be had for just over £200 with only a few compromises in terms of display quality and power, it's hard to recommend except to the Android hardcore and people with a fetish for really nicely designed magnetic hinges.

This article was first published in the November 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.A microscopic colonnade like this could soon replace your laptop's energy-guzzling fan. Researchers at Rice University in Texas simulated how heat would flow through this 100-nanometre 3D structure of boron nitride, also known as white graphene, and discovered that it could be used to cool devices.The reason? The single-atom-thick substance diffuses heat quickly across two-dimensional sheets.The challenge has been to move the heat vertically, explained lead researcher Rouzbeh Shahsavari. If you want to send the heat outside a plane to channel it from one layer to another, these materials aren't good, he says. When you stack sheets of boron nitride, they behave as if they aren't connected.Shahsavari's idea was to link the sheets with tubes of the same material. He discovered that heat would move horizontally as well as vertically between planes. Also, by changing the length of the tubes and the space between them, it is possible to fine-tune how heat moves across the structure.

Such nanostructures could be useful in electronics, at a time when ever-shrinking devices are making heat management a major problem. At that scale, if the system becomes too hot, it might quickly degrade the properties and the lifetime of the device, Shahsavari says.Manufacturing a one-atom structure is expensive, but Shahsavari remains optimistic about the technology's potential. They could end up in your computer or your iPhone.This article was taken from the May 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.Wired tests five super-slim laptops. But which ones need beefing up? Cold- and standby-boot times were recorded, and we played a looped video to assess battery life. We also took into account portability. An aluminium unibody makes the MacBook Air as sturdy as it is stylish, but it's also one of the fastest laptops available. The Air's 8hr 20min battery life is impressive and its backlit keyboard is fine for long typing sessions. However, the glossy screen is prone to catching reflections. When not on the road, the Air can easily connect to your desktop set-up. HD displays, external hard disks, DVD drives and other peripherals can daisy-chain to its super-fast, 20GB/s Thunderbolt port.

Watch: How to Adjust Windows Settings for Best Laptop Battery Life Play Video Many laptop designs now incorporate non-removable batteries that can't be swapped out. While the move toward sealing batteries into the chassis does allow for thinner designs, it removes the possibility of swapping out...